Editorial Content

Fairness Doctrine Revival . . .for Some?

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Article in The Washington Post by Kelly Kasulis Cho & Scott Nover, 1/22/26

Headline:  “FCC targets talk shows by revisiting ‘equal time’ rule for political candidates”

Subhead:  “By changing course on a decades-old ruling, the agency again raised free speech concerns over the Trump administration’s approach to media regulation”

“The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that network talk shows are required to give equal airtime to all candidates intending to run for the same public office, changing course on a decades-old ruling and again raising free-speech concerns over the Trump administration’s approach to media regulation. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/22/late-night-equal-time-fcc/

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Article in Reuters by David Shepardson, 1/21/26

Headline:  “FCC says US late-night, daytime talk shows must offer equal time for candidate interviews”

“WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that daytime and late-night TV talk shows featuring interviews with political candidates must comply with “equal time” rules that give airtime to views of opposing candidates and that the shows cannot rely on a 2006 decision that suggested they were exempt.

“Until now, talk shows have qualified for the equal opportunities exemption as genuine news interviews, ever since the FCC’s Media Bureau granted an exemption to the interview portion of Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” in 2006. Networks have relied on the ruling as a precedent for recent interviews with political candidates. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/22/late-night-equal-time-fcc/

Greenland Not Enough?

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Headline: “Fox News host claims Trump can seize Bermuda too ‘if we need’ it”

“Fox News anchor Jesse Watters casually suggested on Tuesday night that not only could the United States annex Greenland at will, but they could also seize control of the island of Bermuda.

“Watters, a firebrand who has been accused of dropping casual racism and sexual harassment, laughed at the horror from European leaders at President Donald Trump’s escalating threats to seize control of Greenland from Denmark, a critical NATO ally of the United States. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.rawstory.com/jesse-watters-2674914697/

Searching Reporter’s House Portends?

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Article in Chicago Defender by Konstantin Zhukov, 1/14/26

Headline: “Searching reporters’ homes, suing journalists and repressing citizen dissent are well-known steps toward autocracy”

“The FBI search of a Washington Post reporter’s home on Jan. 14, 2026, was a rare and intimidating move by an administration focused on repressing criticism and dissent.

“In its story about the search at Hannah Natanson’s home, at which FBI agents said they were searching for materials related to a federal government employee, Washington Post reporter Perry Stein wrote that ‘[it is highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter’s home.’. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://chicagodefender.com/searching-reporters-homes-suing-journalists-and-repressing-citizen-dissent-are-well-known-steps-toward-autocracy/

Journalists, Don’t be Intimidated!

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Article in The New Republic by Felipe La Hoz, 1/19/26

Headline:  “The Crisis Year for Journalism Is Here”

Subhead:  “Journalists have an inherent right and professional duty to defend their industry and its mission against those who want to derail it—even when those threats are coming from the inside.”

“. . .In-depth reporting is difficult work. It’s not easy to unearth hidden information on the one hand and parse avalanches of it on the other—much of it offered in bad faith—on deadline, especially as newsrooms have shrunk in tandem with the growth and entrenchment of PR and spin. . .”

“As increasingly emboldened interests amp up efforts to buy, sue, steal from, and use official power to coerce the news media into submission, we have to embrace a self-defense posture that won’t interfere with our news gathering but will acknowledge that we can’t continue news gathering if we’ve been knocked over by the powers we’re meant to hold accountable. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://newrepublic.com/article/205099/journalists-right-self-defense-cbs

Hope For Local News?

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Article in The New York Times by Sarabeth Berman, 1/18/26

Headline:  “Local Newspapers Are Closing. Local News Is Surviving.”

“The consequences of the collapse of the local newspaper business have been severe. When communities lose their local news outlets, civic engagement drops, corruption rises, government waste increases and political polarization worsens. Communities no longer know themselves. No number of headlines about goings-on in Washington can change that. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/opinion/local-newspapers-closing.html

The Press Says, “Search Me?”

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Article in The Washington Post by Kathleen Parker, 1/16/26

Headline:  “Attacks on the press? America’s seen this before.”

Subhead:  “A history of government vs. the media, from the Pentagon Papers to Obama”

“The FBI’s early wake-up call at a Washington Post reporter’s Virginia home and subsequent seizure of her phone and two laptops has sent chills through the Fourth Estate.

“Even non-journalists should be worried by what happened to Hannah Natanson, who found FBI agents at her front door at 6 a.m. Wednesday, wielding a search warrant. . .”

“Even though we’re accustomed to President Donald Trump’s contempt for the “fake” media, this unusually aggressive act felt Gestapo-like.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/16/post-fbi-press-freedom-hannah-natanson/

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Riddhi Setty, 1/16/26

Headline: ” ‘A Trauma That You Carry’ “

Subhead:  “An unprecedented attack on press freedom at the Washington Post.“

“. . .’ “You don’t just get over the federal government banging on your door at six in the morning,’ Burke said of the Natanson case. Two years later, much of his equipment remains in the FBI’s possession. . .”

“Journalists who have been targeted by government searches or surveillance said the Natanson incident reflects an alarming escalation of the Trump White House’s hostility toward the media. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/a-trauma-that-you-carry-washington-post-wapo-hannah-natanson-press-freedom-device-search-seizure-trump.php

Document the Truth Before it’s Suppressed

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Article in Poynter by Kelly McBride, 1/15/26

Headline:  “This moment will be defined by what we choose to record”

Subhead:  “Local press and local residents must document history as federal force grows routine”

“When unmarked, masked federal agents grabbed an international student and forced her into an SUV on a public street in the spring of 2025, the United States entered into a new era of federal policing.

“At first, it was alarming — a move more commonly associated with authoritarian dictatorships than a democratically elected government with checks and balances. Now that this tactic, and others like it, have become routine, it is no longer enough to react in alarm. It is time to extensively document everything that is happening. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/documenting-history-as-federal-force-expands/

Reporting on Land-Grab?

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Article in AP by Emma Burrows, 1/15/26

Headline: “International media flock to Greenland as Trump turns the Arctic island into a geopolitical hot spot”

“For several weeks, international journalists and camera crews have been scurrying up to people in Greenland’s capital to ask them for their thoughts on the twists and turns of a political crisis that has turned the Arctic island into a geopolitical hot spot. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/greenland-united-states-journalists-international-media-56700602f0873102e94b3c5c43cc5a1a

WaPo Waking up?

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Article in The Washington Post by the Editorial Board, 1/14/26

Headline:  “The Post and the First Amendment”

Subhead:  “An FBI raid won’t stop reporters from continuing their important work.”

“The Justice Department’s decision to send FBI agents to raid a Washington Post reporter’s home Wednesday was an aggressive attack on the press freedom of all journalists. Yet anyone who believes the raid will deter reporters from doing their jobs is sorely mistaken.

Federal law enforcement searched the home of The Post’s Hannah Natanson and seized several of her electronic devices. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/14/fbi-raid-press-freedom-first-amendment/

What Legacy Media Fear?

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Article in FAIR by Raina Lipsitz, 1/14/26

Headline:  “What Scares Establishment Media Most Is Not Socialism But Democracy”

“. . .Establishment media’s obsession with portraying democratic socialism as divisive and/or fatally alienating to voters blinded it to what was truly radical about Mamdani’s campaign: It empowered ordinary people to lead, changing individual lives and history. What most scares the establishment isn’t socialism; it’s people-powered democracy. . .”

“To pundits and corporate media outlets, this is a dangerous lesson: If everyday people realize they don’t need overpaid consultants or self-declared experts to win real change, how long can the status quo be maintained by its beneficiaries?”

Read the full article at:

https://fair.org/home/what-scares-establishment-media-most-is-not-socialism-but-democracy/